Monday, December 29, 2008

The sky is not falling

BU is coming off two pretty disappointing losses, but for VASTLY different reasons - and neither one gets me too depressed about how the season is going.

Notre Dame - we lead the #12 team in the nation, who hasn't lost in their building in like 4 years, for 37 out of 40 possible minutes. Basically all but the ones that count. This was one of the most exciting games I've watched BU play in a long time. I was fist-pumping and ninja-kicking all over the room, every time we scored a big deep three to answer an Irish run. In the end, we just ran out of gas and the shots stopped falling. McAlarney started hitting some of his normal shots, and Harangody just decided he wasn't going to allow a loss to Boston University.

But the Terriers showed how they are capable of playing.

Delaware - this game pissed me off just because I TiVo'ed it (for some reason it was televised on cable here in the DC area) and also had the BU All-Access as a back-up. I went to great lengths to avoid seeing the score before watching the game, since the Titans game was on at the exact same time. So I pull up BU All-Access (via the Men's Hockey page, so as to not see the game headline on the homepage) and right on the top of the video player is the headline: "Delaware trey sinks BU, 70-68." Well, that really makes you want to watch a whole game, right?

I did my best to watch as much as I could - I did fast forward through a lot of free throws and stoppages. From what I gathered, we did not play our best basketball but put ourselves in position to win the game at the end. On an off night, that's all we can hope for. I do think we are a better team than Delaware, and we led for the entire game - but they hit the shots when it mattered. It's a game we should have won but didn't.

So there they are - two losses for different reasons, neither of which spells doom for the season despite the Chicken Littles out there. A record of 5-5 is not where I, or Coach Wolff, or anyone else really hoped the team would be after 10 games. But there have been good things to go along with some very tough losses so far. Certainly enough to build on as conference play approaches.